This is related to my comment about my parents eschewing nice hotels. A few years ago, my husband and kids and I were taking a road trip and planned to stop in Edmonton, Alberta for the night. We got a flat tire, and it took so long to fix, Edmonton was no longer feasible for that day. The next nearest place was Jasper, a well-known tourist spot in the Rocky Mountains. We decided to stay there instead. The hotel we found wasn't exactly cheap, but it wasn't horrendously expensive, either (about another $30 more per night than the other hotels we'd stayed at on that trip). It was a cool, rainy evening, and we found a cozy Greek restaurant for dinner, followed by an equally welcoming bakery for dessert. All in all, it was the highlight of the trip.

When I told Dad about our unplanned stop in Jasper, he was horrified. "That place? It's a tourist trap! They must have robbed you blind! Why didn't you just grit your teeth and keep driving to Edmonton?" "It wasn't that bad price-wise, Dad, and we had a lovely time." "How much was it?" "$xxx for the night." "What?!? Are you out of your mind?"

See, my DH has an entirely different view of that type of situation. He told my father that he felt staying at a hotel was much more convenient and economical than a hospital. He then added that exhausted drivers sometimes cause accidents.

The worst place I ever stayed from a health standpoint, was the H@liday Inn in a town in southeast. Ontario.

Now, the hotel in general wasn't too bad. In fact, it has a quite large indoor pool. That led to the problem; apparently one room got the ventilation coming up from the pool, leading to an unhealthy buildup of chlorine in the room.

Many hoteliers would have simply given up on renting the room. But the owners here decided to put in a sort of industrial air purifier to clean the chlorine out. Unfortunately, the sound of this huge piece of equipment (it was about as big as a standard fridge) was around the level of a departing jet airliner. So, the unfortunate inhabitant of the room had a choice of not sleeping due to the noise or reenacting the Battle of Ypres overnight.

When I checked out the next morning I told them I was truly horrified they'd put a paying customer in a room like that. I got a Trudeauesque shrug in return. But they have certainly lost me as a customer.

In Seattle recently, there was a tragic drowning in a hotel pool. The thing is, from the description of the pool, I can't believe anyone would ever, ever go in in the first place. The water was almost opaque with chemicals, which hindered the rescue attempts because even someone deliberately searching for him couldn't find him so no one believed he was in there at all, much less down at the bottom. The thing that would put this hotel on the don't ever stay there list is that apparently this (first the opaque water, and later the suspected victim) was known to the hotel staff, but they didn't close the pool.

My Dad got stuck for the LONGEST time in the mindset that any hotel over $100/night was a 'ripoff'. Given that even 'budget' chain motels in Australia average just over that these days... yeah. I just book the hotels before we go anywhere, now, and refuse to let him have any input because he thinks that 'a bed and a shower and a working toilet' is all a person needs for a good night in a hotel.

I don't look for a Hilton or anything super-swanky when I travel - not because I wouldn't want to stay there, but because I simply can't afford it. I do, however, insist on cleanliness, safety, and no irritating noises that will keep us awake.

One time when my parents and I were on a trip, we stayed at a motel that had a large mass of - something - on the outside wall. My parents thought it was ivy. It was bats. Luckily, we all went "Cool!" instead of "Eek!".

The Sands Motel in some small, coastal South Texas town. I refused to sleep touching any of the bed's heavily stained, unwashed surfaces -- I was tightly tucked in a couple of beach towels with what looked like a reasonably clean bathroom towel between the hotel pillow and mine from home. The bathroom was absolutely falling apart, bugs everywhere, terrifying noises all night, and dirt and sticky stuff on every surface. The smell of smoke was everywhere. BF at the time was paying for it and seemed grossed out, too, but not enough to leave. He wasn't exactly a neat freak, and it wasn't exactly a romantic getaway.

DH and I went on a calamitous weekend for our anniversary a few years ago. The hotel looked nice online and our room was clean and decent. It was on a hill so when we went to the pool, it was on a steep angle. There was a difference of a foot of water from one corner of the shallow end. We were the only guests due to the hotel being across the street from a notorious dive bar (we did not know) and if you climbed down from the parking lot, you would find yourself in a 24 hour Big Blue Box Store.

My sister and brother in law are insurance catastrophic claims adjusters, and they live in hotels for a long time while deployed to areas that have had a storm.

They are currently at an extended stay hotel that has no smoking signs everywhere. The people in the room next to them are smoking a substance daily that is not tobacco and the hotel won't do anything. They are trying to find somewhere else to move to in a small area, with no luck.

After they move, I'll post the name and location.

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ďAll that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."-J.R.R Tolkien

Of course, they didn't realize this had little effect on those not still waiting for their deposits, and their Yelp rating is now verging on negative numbers. The hotel's current stance is that this was a joke response to a specific situation that should have been taken down long ago, and was never meant to be enforced. But considering they have a pretty small website, that sounds less than convincing (particularly in combination with their odd cancellation policies).

Of course, they didn't realize this had little effect on those not still waiting for their deposits, and their Yelp rating is now verging on negative numbers. The hotel's current stance is that this was a joke response to a specific situation that should have been taken down long ago, and was never meant to be enforced. But considering they have a pretty small website, that sounds less than convincing (particularly in combination with their odd cancellation policies).

Not too long ago an internet vendor attempted to enforce a contract clause like that on a customer. They failed on a number of fronts.

While I understand that companies want to manage their online image, and said image is hard to control, this is the wrong way to go about it. Lesson #1 in managing your reputation: The Streisand Effect.

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Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bow lines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

My friends were getting married in a small town near the groom's mother's rural home. There were only two hotels in the town and we filled them both. And ours was apparently the better of the two!

It was filthy and reeked of smoke. The mattress and boxspring were just on the floor...no bedframe. No headboard either, just a piece of particle board screwed into the wall. Broken night table. TV had no sound. Lino was peeling up in the bathroom and there were some kind of crawlies under. Splatter on the shower curtain that looked suspiciously like blood. The room smelled sort of "familiarly weird" when we walked in and after a few minutes of searching we discovered that the wall-mounted air freshener holder didn't have an air freshener in it, it had a urinal cake.

having looked at their website, it doesn't look as if the policy is a joke - the rest of the policies are a bit bizarre too. I particualrly like the one about how you can only book, cancel or be told the room rates by e-mail, but that a confirmation by e-mail is a 'courtesy' on their part. That and the two-night minimum if you are attending a wedding *anywhere in the area*!

The fine for leaving a bad review is obviously ridiculous, but who in their right mind would even agree to a contract like that? I would run as far and as fast as I can from any business who promised to bill me for reviews left by my friends!

Some of my hotel stories. Stayed at a pretty low budget hotel in Daytona beach. No iron, no remote for the TV and the "continental" breakfast consisted of a small basket of Walmart brand granola bars on a table in the lobby. At least it was cheap, which leads me to my next story.

Paid over $450 for the Great Wolf Lodge for our large family for 1 night. Took 45 minutes to snake through the check in line. When we got to the front of the line our room was not ready. They said they would call us and sent us to the water park area. Where our bracelets were not working to get us drinks even though we had connected them to a credit card. They had no record of that. Waited and waited and waited and they never called us to get into the room. Husband had to go back through the line to find out the room had been ready for hours and they just didn't call. No apology, no offer to make up for it. Got to the room for which they had now been told 3 times (once online and twice in the line) that we had 7 people with us. Only 6 towels. Called for another towel and they said we had to leave a message and someone would get back to us in an hour or two. For a towel that should have been there in the first place! Husband raised heck and their excuse was, wait for it: the hallway was too long to send someone to our room just for a towel.

Now when I cheap out I expect a bad experience but when I'm paying $450 I expect much better than that. I gave them a bad review online.

The fine for leaving a bad review is obviously ridiculous, but who in their right mind would even agree to a contract like that? I would run as far and as fast as I can from any business who promised to bill me for reviews left by my friends!

When you book a hotel room, do you always read the fine print in the agreement? I would bet the fine is buried well.

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What part of v_e = \sqrt{\frac{2GM}{r}} don't you understand? It's only rocket science!

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